The Thing (2011)

You know what I loved about the original 1982 John Carpanter's classic was the theme tune BO... BO-BO....BO-BO.
The good thing about This Thing, not that Thing but the new thing is it's a prequel to the old Thing, so the new thing is set before the old Thing that was infact a remake of a older Thing....... if you follow me. So you don't have had to have seen the other Things to have seen this Thing.
The same tension of the 1982 Thing is present as it plays up on the whole anti-trust as the Thing thaws from it's icey tomb to kill and duplicate any of the scientist on the antarctic station. like the 1982 Thing this Thing is also set in the early 80's and mostly is a success with the retro feeling, but unlike The Thing this Thing uses CGI, some is very good, but also some does look fake and resembles something from Resident Evil. The Thing about the 1982 Thing was the brilliant use of make-up and puppets it gave us something real to look at and I guess the 1982 Thing has a leg up over this Thing.
But the film is faithful to it's 1982 movie and has great moments of suspense with a fantastic closing sequence that leaves this Thing with the opening to that Thing. This is a very good prequel that has full respect to the original Thing.... that was set after this Thing.
and if your a fan of The Thing you should definatly see this Thing.
On a down side I can see confusion when renting or purchasing this Thing, you'll end up ringing the supplier complaining that they sent you The Thing but not The Thing,, but the other Thing, you wanted The Thing but not this Thing.... The wrong Thing, and also it would look confusing in you DVD/ Blue ray collection having both The Thing 1982 and The Thing 2011 that's set in 1982...... It's a funny old thing.
See if you like......
The Thing ( not this thing but the other Thing)
Alien.
Aliens.
Frozen.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Assault on Precinct 13.

This is a fantastic prequel to John carpenters original classic from the 80s, a pleasant surprise for horror fans, an excellent beginning to the story and it keeps well with the original too with beautifully shot locations and sets and very cool visual effects, the creature looks amazing in every form it takes and there is buckets of gore for those who like it. The movie ends where the original starts and even has some of the same score that John carpenter wrote, this is great horror on a good budget and a worthy purchase!!

like many reviewers i was worried that this version of the thing wouldnt do its predecessor from 1982 credit. i was wrong its a fitting prequel and i was very impressed with the attention to detail that ties the 82 version with this one. the film follows the lines of its predecessor in that group of scientist types discover alien that runs riot round the base. it lack the suspense this time round and the thing gets more on screen time, special effects are good tho not brilliant but thats a small gripe, i want to give it a 5 rating but that would make it as good as our classic by john carpenter with kurt russeland it just falls short. just mind. if sci-fi your thing then get this thing.

the 1982 film is my favourite sci fi film ever so i was slightly worried about this prequel spoiling the karma. have to say it was better than i expected. its not as terryfying or suspenseful as the 1982 film but thats not through lack of trying. the fx are pretty good aswell with a decent blend of cgi and make-up. also there are some nice little touches in terms of tying this film into the following events. all in all it would have been so easy to mess this up big-time but the production team have managed to conceive a film that most 'thing' fans will appreciate. nothing will ever top kurt and the boys though.....

I have read many bad or negative reviews about this new THING movie and to honest it's not that bad. It's not great and it sets no bench mark but it remains faithful to Carpenter's version in tone and art direction and shows us the back story of what happened at the Norwegian camp before the dog reaches the American research base. Fan boys fumed at the notion of a remake/reboot but what we got in the end was a fairly decent prequel. I will say the use of CGI on the transformation sequences is effective but overused at times and you kind of miss Rob Bottin's anamatronic creature effects as they carried more weight to the scenes and were somehow more scary. I still find Carpenter's film a bit disturbing even today and I am a hardened horror fan but remembering how scared I was when I first watched it as a young boy stays with me and keeps the movie real. The 2011 prequel on the other hand is not scary. Not to me anyway. Carpenter's way of creating tension and paranoia along with Ennio Morrocone's forboding score which sounds like Carpenter's own scores is cast aside slightly but not entirely to bring us a full on monster rampage movie. The creature in this feature seems less discreet after being thawed out of it's ice prison and seems to learn to conceal itself better by the time it takes the American camp in Carpenter's movie. Two very different approaches then but that's ok. You don't expect to see the same movie again and the Norwegians experience different things in different ways. If you are a fan of Carpenter's you really need this in your collection to marry the story together of both films. I would like to see many bonus material features on DVD or Blu-ray to show us exactly how much was mechanical effects and how much was CGI. As I said before I am not a huge fan of CGI in a THING film but some scenes do benefit from it. In fact I would love to see the stop motion stuff in Carpenter's THING at the end digitally remastered and replaced by CGI to make it more real as this is the only part of Carpenter's movie that seems dated and it would also bring it in line with it's 2011 prequel. On the whole this movie is a must see and you will find yourself trying to piece together parts from both films and see how they are interlinked. One last word, watch the end credits for the bulid up to the opening titles in Carpenter's film where the dog escapes. The most nostalgic and familiar part of the new movie by far. A shame it's not a longer sequence.